Philip Glass: Aguas da Amazonia Third Coast Percussion, with Constance Volk (flute) (Third Coast Percussion)

Philip Glass’s best music is ripe for rearranging and transcribing. Aguas da Amazonia, a 1990s dance piece composed for the Brazilian group Uakti who performed it on an array of custom-made instruments. Ten short movements celebrate different Brazilian rivers, and it’s since been performed in various guises. A recent orchestral version (recorded by Kristjan Järvi) sounds too diffuse for my tastes. This new version from Chicago-based Third Coast Percussion began life on the group’s Paddle to the Sea album, the remaining movements added and tweaked for performances with Twyla Tharp Dance. I’m a sucker for unusual instruments, this recording including a glass marimba, tuned PVC pipes and some almglocken. Flautist Constance Volk adds improvised solos and designed the album’s appealing sleeve art. Volk knows instinctively how much to add, my favourite intervention being her stinging entry in the fourth section, “Japurá River”.

Ideas from other Glass works pop up, a theme from a piano etude heard in the opening “Amazon River” over a woozy synthesiser bass line. There’s a hint of menace in the driving rhythms of “Xingu River”, the penultimate “Paru River” a beguiling nocturne. The closing “Madeira River, Part II” reaches dizzy heights before the brakes slam on, a single bell sound continuing to ring out. Percussion mavens and fans of minimalism shouldn’t hesitate; this disc is brilliantly played and captured in bright, detailed sound.

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